


until we are but dust and bone

by veramoray



Series: The Old Guard AU [2]
Category: Little Witch Academia, The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Brief Depictions of Violence, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Immortality, Late Night Conversations, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, a few direct references to TOG, diana was a knight templar originally so there is a reference to that, oops i did it again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:53:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28188756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veramoray/pseuds/veramoray
Summary: "We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies.”
Relationships: Diana Cavendish/Atsuko "Akko" Kagari
Series: The Old Guard AU [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064990
Comments: 6
Kudos: 46





	until we are but dust and bone

**Author's Note:**

> warning: this story does contain brief depictions of religious themes but its nothing like, weird or bad lol. just a sort of nod to Diana's past as a knight templar! which i am going to have to stop thinking about before i write 10,000 words about it instead of sleeping hahah.
> 
> i couldn't stop thinking about these two and this AU. i've had this sitting around for a while, and i'll probably never flesh it out more than this, so i just figured i'd post it already for anyone else who enjoyed it before :-)

It’s not the first time Diana has woken to find her wrists and ankles bound together, and she is certain it won’t be the last.

The most immediate thing she notices besides the fact that she’s not dead anymore is her splitting headache. She’s face down in some sort of vehicle. It’s moving, and every time there’s a bump in the road her forehead slams painfully into the cold, grated metal that makes up the floor.

But the headache isn't the only thing drawing Diana’s attention. Without even opening her eyes she is instantly aware that she isn’t alone. As carefully as she can, she turns her head to the side to see that she is in some sort of containment van with benches running down lengthwise on each side. Seated on the benches are two squads of men and women—all clad in black body armor. In every one of their laps sits a fully loaded MP40 sub-machine gun.

She can’t make for an escape just yet. Especially not if the other crumpled form next to her has anything to say about it. Diana refuses to leave anywhere without Akko—not with everything they’ve been through together over the centuries.

Diana groans as the headache throbs at her temple and pushes herself to her knees. Immediately, the heavily-muscled guard seated behind her forcibly grabs hold of her arms and hoists her up. 

“Shut up,” he snarls into her ear before throwing her back down. 

Diana grunts as her body slams into the metal floor. The man’s accent is thick; she instantly places it somewhere in East Germany. Going by the make and model of the guns perched in each of their laps, that isn’t too far off from what she was expecting.

“Ease off, would you?” one guard across from him mutters in German. “The Fuhrer wants them delivered in one piece.”

“They can’t die,” The muscled one retorts, casually sending one steel-toed boot swinging into Diana’s side.

Almost instantly the air grows heavy with silence. Some guards tense. Some place their fingers on the safety of their guns.

But Diana doesn’t move or make a sound.

The guard barks out a laugh. “Some _Immortal._ The Fuhrer can kiss my ass.” 

He punctuates the declaration by spitting out the back of the vehicle, which makes a few of the others snicker. But most are looking at Diana with faces white as sheets. Her clothes are bloodied and torn—not from her own blood, but Akko’s, who still lies unconscious beside her. Just as hers had, Akko’s head collides painfully with the floor as the van trundles along down the road.

It isn’t clear how long they’ve been tied up for. Days, hours. But what does it matter? They will outlast everyone in this van eventually. No matter how advanced their technology becomes—no matter how long and with which tools the doctors and scientists prod into their skin—they will never find the answers that they seek.

 _“It is not something that can be given,”_ one of them would say. But all their enemies ever hear is, _“We refuse to give up our secrets.”_

It’s a never-ending charade that usually results in one or both of them tied and quartered, and often, an entire army of loss behind them.

Everywhere across time and land alike there will be people waging war against them. Diana and Akko may disappear into shadows for a time, but there will always come a day when they can stay hidden no longer. When they must step into the light and breathe life into the long-dead secret of their immortality. When the hand of justice must be dealt, no matter the consequence. 

And it _always_ ends like this. With them, reduced to a heap of blood and chains.

It’s not easy to live alone in the world with a secret so big and so dangerous. Diana has witnessed firsthand the terror that comes from a world consumed by the dark heart of fear. It is a great gift that they can call themselves so fortunate as to have each other—a gift they will never take for granted a day in their lives.

Akko mutters something quietly in her distress as she slowly regains consciousness. When Diana reaches out to her, a dozen guns are immediately cocked, poised, and aimed at the spot directly between her eyes.

“What are you going to do,” Diana challenges, not shying away from making eye contact with each and every one of them. Her throat is dry and raw and it hurts to speak. “Kill me?”

There is a beat of tense silence before the guns begin to lower—hesitantly, and one after the other. But even still all eyes remain wary and trained on the two of them. Any slight movement out of turn could end in bloodshed… but not for them.

Diana ignores the fact that she has an audience and reaches again towards Akko, pulling her close. She rests Akko’s head in her lap, drawing soothing circles around her temples. For a while longer the van shuttles along, jostling them about as it travels over uneven roads.

Akko’s skin is dangerously warm beneath her hands. She mumbles something unintelligible before her eyes flutter open, glazed and struggling to focus. “Daiana...” she slurs. _“Iru no? Ikanai de.”_

“Yes, my love,” Diana soothes. “ _Atashi koko ni iru.”_ But before she can say or do anything else the guards are tugging at them, separating them. Akko grunts in pain as she is pulled harshly away from her. “Akko—!”

Someone elbows the side of Diana’s head, sending her reeling into one of the benches. Hissing, she whips around to face her assailant, the burly man from before. “I need to make sure she’s okay,” she grinds out through clenched teeth. Anger boils hot and ready beneath her skin, but she fights herself to keep it in check. They can still get out of this without needlessly taking lives, no matter how much it might be deserved. They may be immortal… but they can’t play God.

“That’s sweet,” the man taunts, tightening his hold on her arms. “What is she, your girlfriend?” He nudges the guard next to him, who joins in when he laughs.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Diana spits, twisting in his grip. “She’s not my girlfriend.”

The intensity that burns behind her eyes seems to make their captors uneasy. And frankly it startles even Akko who has seen her at her worst, at her angriest. Even this can not compare to that fury.

“This woman is more to me than you can _dream,”_ Diana rasps. The words fall from her mouth like a waterfall, pouring, tumbling out, one after the other; as if she has no control over both the stop and start of her breath. “She is hope when life has forgotten all meaning and my stars when I am lost at sea. Her kiss still thrills me even after a millennia.”

Diana hears a scoff from the guard restraining her, but she doesn’t miss a beat. She hasn’t survived this long—hasn’t fought so tiresomely for what they both believe in to give up on her now. To let these people treat them like mere _children_ sniveling into their mother’s skirts. 

Diana’s voice trembles with righteous anger as she continues, “Her heart overflows with the kindness of which this world could never be worthy of. I love this woman beyond measure and reason. She’s not my _girlfriend,”_ she sneers, indignation dripping from her tongue like black tar. But her eyes soften as they find Akko’s.

“She’s all... and she’s more.”

Their hands and feet may be bound but their hearts never will be, and so Akko takes the initiative to lean forward across the expanse of everything keeping them apart and presses her lips sweetly to Diana’s. It tastes of blood and dirt and the most horrible timing ever, but this may be the last time and so she will _fight,_ she will claw and scrape and gnaw her way to Diana time and time again until they are nothing but dust and bone.

* * *

Weeks or months later they are strapped into twin operation chairs seated conveniently adjacent to each other. Time has lost all meaning in the washed-out light of their new home: a secret lab tucked away somewhere in northeastern Berlin. There are no windows. No overhead skylights, and only one heavily bolted door that leads in or out. The only adornments are the operation table littered with an array of surgical tools, some complicated piece of machinery with blinking lights on the left side of the room, and a broken wall clock. It’s always half-past five in the afternoon, no matter what time of day it is.

Akko knows the reason they keep them together is likely only to torment them further. To make them watch. But briefly she entertains the idea that maybe, even with all the evil in their hearts, these people still somehow know they are meant to be together—even in death.

After all, if Diana is such an incurable romantic, she isn’t any better.

Tiredly, Akko lolls her head to look over at Diana. “Do you remember,” she rasps. Her voice is dry and wheezing. “That time in Norwich?”

“Which time in Norwich?” Diana mumbles. They spent many years there among the quaint row houses and sparkling canals. Many quiet, peaceful years full of fond memories.

At Akko’s lack of response, she turns to face her. Only to find a tired but teasing smirk on her withered face. “Oh,” Diana chuckles airily. _“That_ time in Norwich…” She feels the corners of her mouth coerce themselves into a grin.

For just a moment, she allows the memory of Akko’s warmth and the fine weather to lift her spirits. But fond memories have no place here among such death. The smile soon slips from her face as the door buzzes open, shrieking on its hinges.

How much longer?

Perhaps their days of hoping for a peaceful life are dead and gone.

* * *

There is no telling how many more days they stayed locked up inside that room. A year, maybe two. Or perhaps only a few months.

Regardless, their escape is made when an officer gets a little too cocky around them and Diana spots an opening. An opening just large enough for her to make use of the fact that her wrist is now much thinner than it had been months before. Thin enough to slip through and snatch the gun out of his holster.

It’s heavy in her hand. Heavier than she remembers it ever being. But maybe it’s just the drugs making her feel sluggish.

They make it out with no small amount of casualties. She wishes it didn’t have to be this way.

“They had it coming,” Akko tries to reason with her over a fire one of the following nights. They are deep in the woods coming out of the mountains, deep enough that the only sounds that remain are crickets on the ground and cicadas and the wind passing through trees. “How many times did they kill us? And they would’ve kept going. If you ask me, they deserved it.”

“It doesn’t matter whether or not they deserved it,” Diana snaps. “We have to—this isn’t what we are. We don’t get to choose who lives and who dies.”

“Who does?” Akko grumbles, flopping back onto her bedroll, staring up at the sky. The stars seem to go on forever this far away from the city. “God? At this point I’m not even sure one exists.”

It is uncharacteristic for such a declaration to fall from Akko’s lips. But every hundred years or so, when they become weak from the onslaught of the ignorance of mankind, the cynicism sneaks in. On the darkest days they often find themselves wondering, _what’s the point?_ But thoughts like that will destroy them if they let it.

Diana’s eyes harden. “My God does,” she whispers, turning her back on the fire. Burying her nose in a rolled-up shirt acting as her pillow for the night, she tries to forget it all. All the times they made her watch as they tortured the one person she loves most in the world, trying to force secrets out of them that they don’t even have. All the screams, all the blood that had to be spilled to get them to where they are now.

How many times has she killed for Akko? It’s been centuries since her time in the Order of Solomon, but she still remembers the temple halls like it was only just yesterday. How many of her own vows has she broken since this curse stole her away from that life? From her Knight-Sisters and Jerusalem, her home. It’s too late to know for sure but she is probably only remembered as a deserter at best. No one could have ever known the truth, not even her family, lest the horrible cycle start all over again.

She doesn’t even know the truth for herself. Is this a gift bestowed on her by God? An eternal curse for living a life of sin? Does God even exist to her anymore, and if they do, then why? What is the reason for all of this—why must they always run, why must it be so _hard…_

“Hey,” Akko shifts around on the bedroll to face her. “I’m sorry. I know you hate it—I know it isn’t easy, and I shouldn’t be pressing you about that especially considering...” Diana purses her lips but remains silent. “I’m just—” Akko sighs. “Don’t you ever want a normal life?”

Diana chuckles darkly. “I think a normal life is far beyond our reach now, Akko, my dear. But, yes. There are days I entertain the thought of a quiet house, on a hill perhaps. Just the two of us. And...”

“And a dog. There’s a dog, too.”

“And…” Diana smiles despite herself. “A dog, too.”

“You, me, a dog… No one to bother us ever.” Akko reaches between them to cover Diana’s hand with her own, entwining their fingers. “Just us and a tiny sliver of the world to call our own.”

Diana hums. “Don’t you think you’d get tired?”

“I haven’t yet, have I?”

“Without all the action, I mean.”

Akko grows silent. A pensive look washes over her face. “I don’t know,” she says honestly. “I’d want to travel. But, you? I don’t think I could ever get tired of spending my life with you.”

Diana closes her eyes as a sigh passes through her nose. When she opens them again Akko is inches away, having left her bedroll in favor of closeness with her.

Akko bites her lip. “As long as you don’t stop loving me… I would spend forever with you, Diana.”

“Stop loving you?” Diana laughs, incredulous, her gaze flitting from Akko’s eyes to her lips. “Not even when all the stars turn to dust.”

Akko snorts. “When did I fall in love with a walking romance novel? That was ridiculously cheesy.”

“But you loved it,” Diana whispers, brushing her nose against Akko’s.

“J-Just shut up and kiss me already, you sap.”

“Hm,” Diana’s eyes glint playfully in the dark. “I think I’ll make you wait just a little longer...”

“Whenever you’re ready,” Akko breathes, closing her eyes as Diana’s arms wrap around her. The night will soon grow cold, but now with Diana beside her, she doesn’t need to worry. “I’ve got all the time in the world.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> also, thank you betsu for assistance with the japanese! apologies if it's not entirely accurate. feel free to correct me though!
> 
> akko: ダイアナ……いるの？  
> 行かないで… (diana, is it you? don't go.)  
> diana: あたし ここ に いる。 (i'm here)


End file.
